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EVE Evolved: Features coming in Oceanus and beyond
It's been almost four months since EVE Online switched from publishing two major expansions per year to releasing ten smaller updates, and so far it looks like the new schedule has been a huge success. Rather than forcing the industry overhaul out the door in Kronos before it was ready, CCP was able to push it forward to the Crius release window seven weeks later and the extra development time meant the feature launched in a very polished state. It may be too early to tell if the new schedule's success can be seen in the concurrent player graph for Tranquility, but the numbers have remained steady for the past few months in what is typically the annual low-point for player activity. The Oceanus update is scheduled to go live in just two day's time, adding several graphical upgrades, more difficult burner missions, an experimental new notification feature, and other small improvements. The scale of the update seems to be on par with the recent Hyperion release, consisting of mostly small features and minor iterations on gameplay. While we're told that CCP is still working on large projects behind the scenes, the new release schedule means they won't be rushed out the door and so we may not see them for some time. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I summarise everything we know about Tuesday's Oceanus update, and take a look at what's to come in further releases.
EVE Evolved: Rubicon 1.3 and repainting ships
EVE Online's recently released Rubicon expansion was an important first step toward a truly player-run universe for everyone, allowing corporations to wage empire wars over planetary customs offices and introducing a series of new personal deployable structures. The initial release was a little light on content, but developers have since expanded on it significantly with three major point releases. Rubicon 1.3 went live this week, and the changes seem pretty good all around. This release overhauled the directional scanner, buffed the SoE Nestor battleship's capacitor recharge rate and remote repair range, and nerfed remote sensor dampeners into the ground. Large corporations like EVE University were pleased to hear that the limit on the size of corporations has been increased to 12,600 thanks to changes to the corporation management skills. And in response to an emerging trend in fleet warfare involving hordes of drone ships assigning their drones to an interceptor, developers have also limited the number of drones that can be assigned to another ship to 50. The 1.29 GB patch also included several overhauled ship models and new ship shaders, but the new feature I see the most potential in is the ability to finally repaint our ships. This could eventually help corporations establish their own visual identities and might even link into gameplay or EVE's spying metagame. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I look at some of the Rubicon 1.3 changes and how repainting your ship could become more than simply a cosmetic upgrade.
Maingear announces Nomad 17 gaming laptop, comes with custom paint job
Maingear certainly loves to turn out solidly specificated hardware, and today is no exception. Its latest offering? The Nomad 17. As the name suggests this is a 17-inch notebook for gamers on the go. (Nomad, get it?) The new addition will support third-gen Intel Core i7 chips (up to 3.8GHz) and a maximum 32GB of RAM, with a choice of hard drive configurations. It's not all about the under-the-hood grunt, though, with Maingear offering a choice of six colors for what it's calling "hand-painted premium automotive paint jobs." As for the other spec options? You can expect NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M or 680M graphics, a 1,920 x 1080 display, combo Blue-ray optical drive, b / g / n wireless along with USB 2 / 3, DVI-I, HDMI and Fire Wire ports. So, this definitely sounds like a ride you can make your own. Assuming you're good with the $1,599 starting sticker price that is.
Pentax K-r receives a rainbow paintjob, 35mm prime lens for limited edition kit
Do not adjust your browsers, that really is a Pentax product adorned with a generous helping of the three primary colors and a mech's head attached to its flash hotshoe. Why? In response to customer demand, of course. It'd seem people were so enamored with the way the K-x got abused restyled that they wanted more of that Korejanai magic, and Pentax is kindly obliging them with a limited run of 100 "robotized" K-r sets. The internal specs are unchanged from the original, but you do get a new 35mm prime lens with a wide F2.4 aperture to play with. Pre-orders costing ¥99,800 ($1,187) will start on December 24th for a delivery in early January. Yup, just in time for you to be the coolest blogger at CES.
Xbox 360 gets stylish Domo-kun paint job
It may not be quite as elaborate as some console paint jobs, but if you're looking to add a touch of Japan to your Xbox 360, you may want to follow the lead of deviantART member Ricepuppet, who has managed to create a relatively faithful Domo-kun themed console. As you can see above, that even includes a matching controller, which we presume is still fully functional (and, apparently, twice as likely to slip out of your hands). Just don't go too nuts and decide to pair it with a Hello Kitty-themed Wii, there's no telling how they might get along. [Via Engadget Spanish]
Paramagnetic paint lets you change your car's color on a whim
Sure, the whole "temporary vehicle paint" idea was a fine concept if you adored hassles, but Nissan scientists at TK have a much cleaner approach for those who appreciate easy. The effect is paint color change at the press of a button, and the secret is a "special polymer containing paramagnetic iron oxide particles," which is applied to the whip's exterior; an "applied electric current then adjusts the spacing of small crystals within the iron oxide particles, and therefore affects their ability to reflect light and change color." Essentially, vehicles could rock a default color when turned off, and then your imagination could go wild once you turned over the ignition. If all goes well, expect to see commercial applications ready to roll by the time Fast and the Furious: 10 Times 2 Many hits theaters (or 2010, whichever comes first).[Via Autoblog]Update: Sounds like Nissan expressed some interest and / or viewed a demo of the tech, but isn't actually the developer. Quite in fact, we're not entirely sure which scientists claimed to have developed this tech in the first place, but we'll let you know if more details become available.
